LoJack’s trade gives Nick Reed a larger role

Nick Reed (left) hangs on to the jersey of wide receiver Golden Tate during training camp action at the VMAC. (Rod Mar/Seattle Seahawks)

By trading Lawrence Jackson to the Detroit Lions this week, the Seahawks gave a big vote of confidence to Chris Clemons as their starting defensive end.

But Clemons’ ascension to the first-unit “Leo” pass-rushing spot in the defense had been apparent from the start of training camp, so perhaps more surprising is how much faith the club is putting in second-year man Nick Reed as the backup in that role.

Nick Reed

With Jackson gone, Reed is now the primary depth behind the 254-pound Clemons, who has started only a handful of NFL games in six seasons in the league. The other remaining speed rusher is former Canadian Football League standout Ricky Foley, who has been working behind Reed all summer.

A year ago Reed was the training camp sensation who fought his way onto the club as a seventh-round long shot out of Oregon, an undersized 248-pound defensive end who just kept making play after play in preseason.

Can he finally breathe a sigh of relief with his role, no longer having to constantly prove himself as the ultimate underdog?

“I still have to,” Reed said this week. “Nobody in this profession’s job is secure. But I”m like the sparkling image of that. I always have to work for it.”

The bearded 22-year-old has watched players come and go this offseason. There have been 125 roster moves since Pete Carroll and John Schneider took over and the 80 current athletes on the squad certainly aren’t oblivious to the seemingly daily coming and goings.

“That’s motivation,” Reed noted.

But while he can’t count on anything, Reed clearly has a better niche in the Seahawks’ new defensive scheme. The coaching staff is fashioning a defensive line with two distinct types of defensive ends — the mammoth “five-technique” guys like 300-plus pounders Red Bryant, Kentwan Balmer and E.J. WIlson and the small, speedy “Leo’s” on the other side like Clemons, Foley and Reed, all in the 250 range.

Jackson, at 6-4, 270, didn’t fit either mold well. And now he’s gone.

“I do feel like they have a certain body-type player they’re looking at and they want to build their team around that,” said Reed.

And for a guy whose game is constructed around instinctive pass pressure and quickness, it’s a big plus to have a system looking for exactly what he brings to the table.

Last year the former Oregon All-American was sensational in preseason, but played sparingly in the real games and totaled just eight tackles and one sack.

“The defensive change will be a great opportunity for this entire defense, but more specifically I’m excited about it because I think it’ll afford me to get in there and do what I do best and rush,” Reed said. “The guys we went out to get and the defense we formed up, even from the beginning before we installed anything, it looked like it would be helpful for me. And it worked out.”

Reed says he’s infinitely more comfortable this camp in his second go-round, even with a new coaching staff, just having gone through the experience last year.

But he’s not going to get too comfy. In his mind, he’s always going to be the seventh-round draft pick fighting the odds, even if the team just traded away its former first-round draft pick at his very own position.

“It’s kind of just the profession,” he said of Jackson’s departure. “You’ve got to stay on top. No job is secure.”

That message is clear in Carroll’s camp. But so is this one. The team loves to unleash a quick, undersized athlete off the edge to harass opposing quarterbacks.